Birmingham
Activities and events
A good lawyer doesn’t just know the law. Today’s lawyers must be commercially aware, they must understand how businesses work and they need to be able to network and interact with other legal professionals and clients. On top this it helps if you have a variety of extra-curricular activities and experiences to make you stand out from the crowd. That’s why, at The College of Law Birmingham, we provide a range of activities and events that will help you prepare for all aspects of life in practice.
Commercial Awareness Programme
French Exchange
Speed Networking
Pinsents Lecture
Law Society Careers Conference
Midlands Legal Walk
Local Law Society Events
Interested in a Career at the Bar?
Day in the Life of a Barrister
Court Visits
Mooting Competitions
Negotiation Competitions
Practitioner Evenings
Mock Trials
Commercial Awareness Programme
Our Commercial Awareness Programme has two key components:
Commercial Awareness Presentations
Each year a range of leading lawyers visit the College to give presentations on the key issues facing lawyers and their own experiences in commercial practice. Recent presentations include:
- Life as a Corporate Finance Lawyer
- The Solicitors’ Firm as a Business
- Money Laundering
- Things You Should Know Before Going into Practice
- Sex, Money and Death: Life as a Commercial Pensions Lawyer
- Life as an In-House Lawyer
- Client Care
The Business Game
What better way to understand the application of your studies in the commercial world than to have a go at running your own business?
Students work in teams which form part of a league. Each team sits as the Board of Directors of a fictional trading company, competing in a cut throat market. You will meet for three board meetings, during which you will make decisions on a range of issues including company image, marketing strategy, pricing and a range of financial trading and employment problems.
Your success will depend upon the Board’s ability to promote a coherent company image, interpret the half yearly financial and market information and take appropriate management responses. Each team is assisted by a mentor from legal practice, accountancy or commerce.
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French Exchange
Birmingham and Lyon have been twin cities since 1951. So shortly after the College had opened in Birmingham in 2001, it was decided to establish a programme which would give law students from Birmingham and Lyon the opportunity to work in their twin city.
A partnership has been created between the Birmingham branch of The College of Law and Ecole des Avocats in Lyon. Both colleges exist to provide post-graduate legal education.
Unlike traditional university exchanges, where students spend their time studying at their twinned university, our exchange programme allows students to work in law firms in their twinned city. You will therefore be able to experience professional life in another country, potentially opening up the opportunity to work there once you qualify as a lawyer.
The programme is designed to be fairly small and participants must be fluent in French so that they get maximum benefit from the scheme. You should note however, that fluency, or near fluency, is expected in conversational French, not business French. As a very rough guide, we would expect you to have a good grade at A-Level (or equivalent) in French.
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Speed Networking
You’ve heard of speed dating; now you can try your hand at speed networking.
Each year The College of Law Birmingham organises a speed networking event in conjunction with the Birmingham Trainee Solicitors’ Society. Last year more than 30 trainees from law firms across the West Midlands took part in the event, passing on their advice and experiences to our students.
Students have three minutes to quiz each trainee before a whistle is blown and you have to move on to the next. This is the perfect opportunity to find out more about the firms that the trainees work for, how they secured their training contracts and the best and worst aspects of their jobs.
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Pinsents Lecture
Leading law firm Pinsent Masons sponsor a regular high profile speaker event at The College of Law Birmingham. Previous speakers include Cheri Booth and former attorney general, Lord Goldsmith. These lectures involve the speakers presenting on a topical subject, after which the audience is able to ask questions. Students and key local legal figures are invited to attend these events.
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Law Society Careers Conference
The College of Law Birmingham hosts The National Law Society’s annual Careers Conference. The event aims to cover all aspects of preparation for a career in the legal profession including routes to qualification, completing applications and interview techniques. Students are given an insight into the alternative career options offered by different types of employers within the legal profession.
Past speakers have included representatives from the Association of Muslim Lawyers, the Junior Lawyers Division, Lawyer 2B, Eversheds, The Crown Prosecution Service and many more.
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Midlands Legal Walk
Staff and students from the College take part in this 10km walk through Birmingham city centre alongside solicitors, barristers and members of the judiciary in order to raise much needed funds for the Midlands’ Legal Trust. The Trust donates the money raised to legal advice centres across the Midlands to help them provide legal advice and support to those who would not otherwise be able to afford it. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to network and have some fun, whilst giving something back to the local legal community at the same time.
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Local Law Society Events
Birmingham Law Society is extremely active and is the largest local law society in the country. They regularly hold events in our lecture theatre, inviting guest speakers in to discuss issues affecting working in the law. Our students are offered the opportunity to attend these events along with high profile legal figures from the Midlands.
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Interested in a Career at the Bar?
We hold various events especially for those GDL students who are interested in a career at the bar and also those already on our BVC course.
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Day in the Life of a Barrister
A great opportunity to meet members of the Bar; this event consists of a series of talks given by barristers and a judge, all practising different areas of law and at different stages in their career. Students have the opportunity to put their questions to the practitioners in a question and answer session, which is followed by a drinks reception where you will get to network and chat with the practitioners in an informal setting.
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Court Visits
We arrange visits to various courts in the region, including the Magistrates’ Courts and the Crown Court. You’ll also be able to arrange your own visits to other courts which reflect your own areas of interest.
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Mooting Competitions
Mooting is the oral presentation of a legal issue or problem. Students are given a legal issue and must present their side of the case to a panel of judges using relevant legal arguments.
We hold in-house mooting competitions for intending barristers on our GDL and for students on our BVC. This provides students with an essential opportunity to put their advocacy skills into practice. The finals of these competitions are judged by practising barristers and judges.
Frequently our students also go on to put their skills to use in national, and international, mooting competitions.
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Negotiation Competitions
Lawyers are called upon to negotiate in all types of situations, whether it’s the finer details of a contract, or the terms of settlement of a dispute. Like any other skill, the more you practise, the better you get.
At The College of Law Birmingham we hold annual in-house competitions and also host a regional heat of the National Negotiation Competition, which this year saw two teams from our BVC go on to compete in the national finals.
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Practitioner Evenings
These are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your advocacy skills in front of practising barristers and receive feedback.
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Mock Trials
You’ll be able to participate in mock trials staged in front of sitting judges and senior barristers.
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